


Bluer Skies

by Soulstoned



Series: Blue flowers [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Mpreg, Mutual Pining, Past Curtis/Shiro (Voltron), Post-Canon, Pregnant Keith (Voltron), Sex Pollen Aftermath, awkward beginnings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 09:42:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19971958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soulstoned/pseuds/Soulstoned
Summary: Shortly after Shiro's divorce, Keith invites him along on a mission with the Blade of Marmora where something happens that will change both of their lives forever. The aftermath could either bring them together or tear them apart.





	Bluer Skies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Val_Creative](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Val_Creative/gifts).



> Dear recipient, I hope you like it! The prompts I used were "Sharing a room," "Alien flora and fauna," and "In which they realize their pining is mutual." I hope it's okay that I also took inspiration from your prompts in other fandoms. I had fun writing it!

To anyone else, the small swell below Keith's navel looks like maybe he just ate a big dinner, if they even notice it at all, but Shiro knows the truth. Even if they haven't talked about it. Even if Keith _won't_ talk about it.

Nearly three months ago when the ink was barely dry on Shiro's divorce certificate, Keith invited him along on a blade mission to deliver supplies to a planet that had been suffering from a drought.

It was a good distraction, being out in space helping people again. Shiro always felt restless on Earth. Curtis said that the skies on other planets were no bluer than the sky on Earth, and that it was time to grow up and settle down, but Shiro wasn't made for settling down.

On the trip into the village during their second day on the planet they took a shortcut through a clearing full of brilliant blue flowers thriving amongst the patchy brown grass. That's when things went off the rails. 

The memories are hazy, as if he experienced them in a dream. What he remembers most clearly is when they snapped back to reality and left the clearing, they stepped into the village with their clothes rumpled and their hair mussed and tried desperately not to look each other in the eyes as the villagers simply gathered around to _congratulate_ them.

The villagers told them that the flowers were a vital part of reproduction for the species that lived on the planet. Couples entered the clearing and the pollen from the flowers acted as a strong aphrodisiac and fertility enhancement, but only if the couple was compatible. Incompatible couples could walk through entirely unaffected. 

That night they laughed it off, promising not to make it weird, and positive that as two men they had nothing to worry about. Surely the villagers, who were members of a single sex race, simply had a few wires crossed and everything would be fine.

Then Keith started getting sick, and after a visit to his doctor he started getting distant. Shiro isn't an idiot, he knows what that means.

For now they’re both staying aboard a Blade of Marmora cargo ship, staying busy with calls for aid from all over the universe along with the rest of the ship's crew. 

Keith steps up to the table where Shiro is eating a late dinner. "I just wanted to let you know I'm going to be gone for a few days, I'm taking one of the pods to New Daibazaal," he says, fiddling with the hem of his shirt, a nervous habit he has picked up recently.

"Can we talk before you go?"

Keith glances around the room, spotting several other blade members sitting at the surrounding tables. "Not here."

"When are you leaving?" Shiro asks, resigned to the fact that this might be all he’s able to get out of Keith for the time being.

"Now. I already have the pod packed up and ready to go, I just…" he trails off for a moment before refocusing. "I wanted you to know where I went, so you wouldn't think I just disappeared."

Shiro purses his lips. "Okay. Let's go."

Keith is momentarily taken aback. "You don't have to, I'll be okay."

Shiro kicks himself for whatever he may have done to make Keith think he wouldn't want to, but he's grateful he doesn't seem to be putting up much resistance. "I want to, I miss you," he says softly.

Keith nods and Shiro could swear he gets a little misty eyed. He wants to pull him into a tight hug, but he isn't sure exactly where they stand after _the incident_ and he doesn't want to risk Keith changing his mind about letting him come along.

He stops by his room and quickly tosses a few outfits into a bag along with his toothbrush and jogs to the hangar where Keith should be waiting with the pod. He’s relieved when he gets there that Keith hasn’t left without him. 

They sit in silence as Keith flies the pod out of the hangar and types in the coordinates for New Daibazaal. 

Shiro breaks the silence. “So, what’s happening on New Daibazaal?”

“I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow,” says Keith, averting his eyes.

“Is everything okay?”

“I’m fine, it’s just a check up,” Keith says, still not looking in Shiro’s direction.

“For the baby?” Shiro asks, hesitant to broach the subject, but they really need to talk about it.

Keith tenses for a moment before slumping slightly in his seat looking defeated. "You know."

"Yeah, I figured it out a few weeks ago when you first started getting sick. I was waiting for you to be ready to talk about it."

"I wasn't sure what to say. Neither of us were in our right minds when it happened, but it was my choice to keep it. You don't have to be involved. I know you don't want this, and that's fine. We'll be okay," Keith says, looking somewhere around Shiro's feet as his hand moves to rest over his small bump.

Shiro can't help but feel hurt. "You can't decide I don't want it without talking to me."

Keith looks confused. "You said you were relieved that you didn't have any kids, just a few months ago."

"Relieved I didn't have any kids _with Curtis_. We had really different ideas about how to be good parents, it's one of the things we used to fight about," Shiro says, thinking back to the adoption application that was filled out and then discarded on three separate occasions.

"Oh," says Keith, looking slightly hopeful for the first time in weeks as he slowly turns to finally look Shiro in the eye.

"He thought having kids meant settling down into a stable life on earth, I wasn't ready to give up all this," Shiro says, gesturing out the window at the stars and planets as they pass by.

“I don’t want to give all this up either, I’m just going take the kid with me. It might be hard once they start school, but I’ll figure something out,” says Keith.

“Any kid of ours is sure to love the stars. We’ll figure it out together.”

“I was so worried you were going to end up resenting me for this. I don’t want to lose you, but this baby is my family. I can’t give them up either,” says Keith.

“We’ll get through this together. We’ll be a family,” Shiro pauses, remembering a rejection and misread signals all those years ago in the cargo hold of the black lion just before he moved to green to deal with his own heart break. “In whatever way you’re comfortable with,” he adds after a moment, pushing that particular painful memory away.

Keith’s face softens for a minute as they approach the landing pad. “I’m glad you want to be involved, I’m sorry for making assumptions.”

They stop to rent a hoverbike outside of the landing area, neither of them really wanting to talk about it in a space where they might be overheard. Male pregnancy isn’t exactly unheard of, it’s a big universe after all, but it’s certainly unusual and likely to attract unwanted attention.

As they enter the hotel room Keith reserved, Shiro’s eyes land on the single large bed in the middle of the room. “When I made the reservation, I thought I’d be coming here alone,” says Keith.

“Do you want me to see if they have another room?” Shiro asks, shifting uncomfortably in the doorway.

“Only if you want to. We have a lot to talk about, so I don’t mind if you stay, but you don’t have to, we can talk in the morning if you prefer,” says Keith, putting his bag down to search for his pajamas.

“I want to stay.”

Keith nods, “I’m glad,” he says, as he steps into the bathroom to change.

When he comes back, Shiro is sitting on the edge of the bed, already changed into his sweats and tank top, looking slightly uneasy.

It’s Keith’s turn to break the silence, “When you said we could be a family, did you mean like, together?”

“However you want,” says Shiro. “I’d like to give us a chance, but I know you don’t feel that way about me, and the last thing I want is for you to feel pressured right now. I can’t stop thinking about it though.”

Keith sits next to him on the bed. “I do feel that way about you, I have for a long time,” the surprise must show on Shiro’s face, because he continues. “I saw your wedding when I was in the quantum abyss. I thought it meant a relationship between us wouldn’t work out, and I didn’t want to ruin our friendship, so I tried to move on.”

Suddenly Keith’s strange behavior back then makes sense. The closeness followed by an unexpected rejection. It took time for their friendship to get back on track through all the awkwardness, but eventually they managed to get back to where they were. “Did you see any of this?” Shiro asks, gesturing vaguely in the direction of Keith’s abdomen.

“No. I could have used a warning, this is pretty fucked up.”

“We’ll make the most of it,” says Shiro reaching out to take Keith’s hand.

“I already love it,” says Keith, looking down as he rests his other hand over the small bump. “I just hope it’s okay and we haven’t gotten this far for nothing.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m supposed to find out tomorrow if this is viable. You know on Earth when two men want a baby, so they mix some cells and grow one in a lab? Most of the embryos that process creates aren’t viable. Sometimes they have to go through a ton of them to find one with a chance. If this is anything like that, then the odds aren’t great that just one would happen to be healthy enough to make it.”

Shiro hesitantly reaches out to place his hand over the bump. It’s surprisingly firm under his hand and he has to choke back the wave of emotion he feels knowing it’s his baby in there. “This isn’t a lab, it’s your body, and there were magic space flowers involved. I don’t think anything about this is normal, but our baby is growing and that has to be a good sign.”

Keith sinks into Shiro’s side. ”Thanks for being here, I didn’t actually want to do this alone.”

“Thanks for letting me be here. I know we’ve gone way out of order, but how would you like to start, now that we’re doing this for real?”

“Can you just hold me tonight?” Keith asks, moving around to the other side of the bed to lay down.

“Of course, I’d love to,” Shiro says, climbing beneath the covers and wrapping his arm around Keith. It feels right, laying there like that with his arm wrapped around the man he loves, hand dipping down to rest against the place where their child is growing, safe and sound at least for now.

In the morning they wake up and get dressed to go to Keith’s appointment. Shiro holds Keith’s hand in the waiting room and follows him back to the exam room when his name is called. The doctor is a kind-looking Galra woman who was one of the doctors working directly with the Blade of Marmora during the war. Now she runs a clinic where her practice specializes in healthcare for Galra hybrids.

They go through a list of questions as Keith’s vitals are taken and his blood is drawn for testing. Shiro offers him an encouraging smile as he is instructed to lay back on the table so the doctor can use a holo wand to get a look inside. His hands are shaking slightly as he lifts his shirt so the wand can make contact, and he looks away as the hologram lights up, afraid of what he’s about to see. 

Shiro is entranced. He wasn’t expecting to be able to tell what’s going on, but he can clearly see four limbs, a face, and a strong heartbeat. He leans in and kisses the top of Keith’s head, whispering assurances into his ear that everything looks okay. Keith reluctantly looks up at the hologram and a single tear of relief falls at what he sees.

As the appointment wraps up, the doctor hands over a few print outs from the scan and says she'll call with the results of the blood work, but everything she saw today looks good. With the first trimester wrapping up, he may be out of the woods.

They’re excited as they head back to the hotel, both of them unable to contain their joy at what they’ve seen. As they enter their room, Shiro pulls Keith into a deep kiss, their first outside of the influence of the pollen. 

Keith melts into it, sinking into Shiro and holding onto him like a lifeline. Before they can get any further, Keith’s phone rings. His face lights up when he sees the number and he scrambles to answer it.

Keith is listening with a grin as someone on the other end of the call says something that Shiro can’t quite make out. Before he hangs up, Keith asks whoever is on the other line to hold something for him, and says he will be there within the varga. Shiro follows along in confusion as Keith runs outside to their rented hoverbike and climbs on behind him, ready to go along for the ride.

They go down a windy road to the outskirts of town and pull up to what seems like a shipyard. Shiro can’t read Galran to know exactly where they are, but the atmosphere reminds him of a used car dealership on Earth.

A tall Galra man in a tacky suit waves Keith over to a medium sized red ship. “I just got it in this morning and remembered you were in the market, thought I’d offer it to you first,” he says, slapping the side of the ship.

Keith tugs Shiro by the hand excitedly as he steps inside. “I was thinking, with all that’s happening, I’m going to need my own place, this model ship is the nicest thing my budget will cover but they’re really hard to find,” he says.

Looking around there’s a small living space that reminds Shiro a lot of the inside of an RV, with two small bedrooms, a single bathroom, and a combination living room and kitchen. Down below that there is a cargo hold with enough space to park a small pod that could be used for storage and a personal vehicle, or potentially converted into additional living space. Up front are two seats, for both a pilot and copilot.

“What do you think, does it beat living out of hotels and cargo ships?” he asks.

“It’s perfect,” says Shiro, and it really is. He has spent a lot of time over the last few weeks, laying awake and wondering how to raise a baby while moving from ship to ship with the Blade of Marmora. He should’ve known Keith would have that part handled.

Shiro stays on board to look around while Keith follows the dealer inside to make payment arrangements. He imagines setting up a crib in the smaller bedroom and painting the walls to resemble the stars that’ll be just outside the windows. He imagines flying the ship from planet to planet, helping, or even just exploring with Keith and his child by his side. This might be a jumbled mess of things happening out of order, but he can’t imagine a future more perfect.

Keith returns after a little while, holding a folder full of paperwork and a set of keys. “Want to take it for a spin?” he asks.

“Yeah! Lets go,” Shiro says, clambering into the copilot’s seat. 

They make a few loops around the solar system, taking turns testing the controls as they zip through asteroid fields and slingshot around planets. After a while Keith engages the autopilot, one of the main draws of this ship over others in its class. “It’s slower, but on autopilot the ship will head in the right direction while avoiding collisions. I thought it would be good to have it in case our kid needs me when I’m flying. This way we’ll lose less progress and I can get away faster than if I had to find a safe place to put the ship in orbit,” Keith says.

The ship does noticeably slow down, but it continues in the direction of New Daibazaal as Keith steps out of the cockpit toward the living space of the ship. Shiro takes one last look out at the stars before following him. 

“I know this is really fast, and you don’t have to answer right away, but you’re welcome to move in too. If you want to,” Keith says, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear and trying to look casual.

“I’d love to,” Shiro says, pulling him into a tight hug and leaning down to meet his lips with a soft kiss. 

“We can go check out of the hotel and spend the night here if you want. We’ll need to stock up on supplies, but I was wanting to spend a couple more days on the planet anyway,” Keith says. “Now that we know it’s okay, I want to tell my mom about the baby.” 

“I’ll go with you for that, unless you think it would be better to tell her alone.”

“I’d really like to have you there,” says Keith, guiding Shiro over to the couch in the small living space so they can sit down.

“Then there’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” and it really is that simple. Right now Shiro can’t imagine leaving Keith’s side for anything. He reaches over to rest his hand over Keith’s stomach, the slight curve there is still small enough that nobody would know unless they were looking for it, but to Shiro it’s everything.

“I can’t believe we had sex and I can barely even remember it,” Keith huffs. 

Shiro laughs, he understands the feeling. Knowing it happened but not really being able to focus on the memory has been endlessly frustrating for him over the past three months. “I’ll make it up to you,” he says.

“How about now?” Keith asks, climbing into his lap and grinding down a little bit for emphasis.

“I think that can be arranged,” Shiro says, leaning forward to nip at his neck, almost embarrassed at how fast his body is reacting to the close contact, but feeling better as his eyes fall and he realizes Keith is just as affected. 

Keith’s continues to grind against him as they free themselves from their clothes, leaving them in a messy pile on the floor as Shiro picks him up and carries him through the doorway to the bedroom and deposits him gently on the bed. He wants to slow this down and savor their second time together as they break in their new home.

He lets Keith pull him back into a lazy kiss as he climbs into the bed, hovering over him and just enjoying the moment as they move together. Keith spreads his legs and looks up at him as they break the kiss. “I’m ready, I’ve wanted this for a long time,” he says.

Shiro looks down between them and comes to the disappointing realization that they don’t have any lube. “I’d love to, but I don’t think we thought this through.”

Keith looks confused for a moment before realization hits, “Oh,” he says slumping back against the pillows. 

“We can still have a good time,” Shiro says, taking both of their cocks in hand and stroking them together as they continue to move against each other. It’s quick and messy and not what they had in mind, but they wouldn’t trade it for anything, because this time it was their decision.

Neither is ready to move as the ship makes a sound alerting them that they’ve arrived at New Daibazaal. “We don’t have to go just yet, we can stay here,” Keith says, sleepily clinging on to Shiro as he moves to clean both of them up. 

Maybe a nap wouldn’t hurt, Shiro decides as he joins Keith under the covers, spooning him from behind and letting his hand rest over his stomach, a position that he is sure he will resume many times over the next few months. When he drifts off, he dreams of the bluest skies he’s ever seen.


End file.
